Float On.

Celebrate National Ice Cream Soda Day With A Trip To The Century-Old Highland Park Soda Fountain.

Here's an amazing way to celebrate this blazing hot Friday: Today is National Ice Cream Soda Day!

Assuming you're over the age of five, then surely you know the makeup of an ice cream soda. It's basically just your favorite fountain drink with a couple scoops of your favorite ice cream plopped down in it.

Here in the South, we call them ice cream floats.

Originally, the delightful treat came in a single variety, combining root beer and vanilla ice cream. It didn't take long, however, for human ingenuity to take over. Soon, people started mixing vanilla ice cream with all different kinds of fountain drinks.

This coming May, one of the region's finest ice cream float proprietors will turn 100 years old.

Located at the corner of Knox and Travis streets, the Highland Park Soda Fountain has been in operation since 1912. Their menu boasts a variety of old-time favorites from grilled cheese to goose liver.

Meanwhile, the fountain side of the menu is extensive. And they do their floats right, too, offering just the basic soda varieties — Coke, Dr.Pepper or Root Beer — with vanilla ice cream.

Yeah, their offering is a simple one.

But maybe there's a lesson to be learned here — one with which you're also no doubt familiar.

That lesson? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I mean, you've gotta figure there's a reason the Highland Park Soda Fountain's been around for almost a century, right?